In A Moment
by Werewolf-at-Hogwarts
Summary: In a moment, your life can change forever. Remus Lupin learns this one snowy December night...


In a Moment  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters involved. Don't remind me. A/N: Hi! This is my first fanfic ever! Isn't that wonderful? It's basically about the night Remus was bitten, if you haven't guessed. Flame me if you want, but it won't help me better my fics in the future. Plus, I may just have to eat you if you anger me. Mwhaha.  
  
Remus Lupin slipped stealthily out of his house from the back door, a triumphant smile spreading across his lips as he looked back into the house and saw that no one had noticed his departure. He closed the door quietly behind him, suppressing a whoop of joy and quivering with excitement. He gazed from the slightly raised porch out into the moonlit world about him. It was perfect, crystalline, untouched, seemingly begging for a boy such as himself to come and play in it. It was the first snow of the year, and the world had a tantalizingly alien beauty to it. It was getting quite dark, but he could see in the light flooding from the windows of the house. He started as he saw Daddy's shadow in one of the partially shaded windows and scampered to the other side of the porch against the wall, where no one from within the house could possibly spot him. He breathed a sigh of relief as Daddy's figure receded away from the light, obviously not having seen him. He giggled again in a giddy sort of triumph at having escaped again. He savored the cold air as it nipped refreshingly at his face, the light wind that was now following in the wake of the past day's blizzard making his heavy cloak blow around him slightly. He had been waiting eagerly since mid-summer for this day, the day of the first snow. He adored the snow, loved it far more than any other type of weather he had experienced in his five years of life. The first snow had been unfairly late this year: it was presently early December. All the more reason for him to be ecstatic at its arrival. He was determined to play in it as soon as possible, he had been waiting patiently quite long enough. There was no way Mommy and Daddy could keep him in the house any longer: the storm had moved on, the wind had let up. They were unfair to say that it was too dangerous to go outside now: that was why he had snuck outside. Nothing could hurt him here, in this perfect, white world. His few cares were gone, he was secure- this was ultimate bliss. He allowed a high-pitched whoop to escape his mouth and sprang off the porch. He laughed as he landed on his back in a pile of snow accumulated around a log next to the porch, sending clouds of snow up into the air around him. He rolled off the snow bank and then sat up, then, like a cat on a sudden night-induced impulse, ran top-speed across the yard toward the forest at the other side. He spotted a particularly fluffy patch of snow and scooped some up in his hands. He threw his newly made snowball at a tree, reveling in the simple thrill of watching it collide with the solid bark and fall apart. He laughed again, and using his thick winter robes to wipe the melting snow from his rosy pink hands, looked around towards the other side of the yard beyond the house. His childish laughter died at what he saw.  
Two narrow, amber eyes were glowing with a bright light all their own behind a tree at the edge of the forest.  
Remus stopped dead, staring at the eyes. They were mesmerizing; madly calculating, yet somehow filled with irresistible charisma. He could sense danger in those eyes - the plummeting, clenching feeling in his stomach was unmistakable - but he also felt overwhelming curiosity, an urge to find out who this stranger was. After a quick battle within himself, Remus took a few steps forward toward the creature, the owner of those eyes, whose face was still wreathed in shadow despite the silvery light of the Full Moon.  
Without warning, the mysterious creature lunged. Racing across the treeless yard out of the cover of the woods, it revealed itself as a massive, gray wolf.  
Horror flooded the small boy as the wolf sped across the yard at him, five times his size and foaming at the mouth, growling hungrily, eyes on fire. Panicked, he stumbled backwards a few steps. Then he turned and ran. Ran out of his crystalline world that had now cruelly revealed that its security was false. Ran on seeming impulse toward the porch, toward the place where Mommy and Daddy could see him, the place he knew held real safety. Every particle of his body seemed to be screaming "faster, faster!", with so much intensity that it actually hurt. He could feel the ache that was building in his upper back and shoulders, seeming to remind him that he was completely exposed to the wolf should it catch him, intensifying each time the noise of the wolf's feet connecting with the ground reached his ears. His lungs were on fire, his throat was raw, his heart felt like it might burst, his legs were stiff. but his mind was urging him onward, almost blindly, just to keep ahead of the monster. He was so close. so close to that raised platform, just yards ahead with the comforting golden light of the house streaming through it from the half- shaded windows. The platform from which his parents could see him, save him. He knew he would have to be safe there. The wolf would not be able to get there, where his parents could see him. It would just have to leave, run away to find a victim who did not have parents like he did, those two beacons of ultimate power in the world. He frantically urged himself onwards through the knee-deep snow. Just a few more yards. he could hear whoosh of fine snow being launched into the air each time the wolf's massive paws hit the frozen earth, hardly a foot behind him, it seemed. It was mere feet now. he could hear the wolf's panting breath as its snout got close to his ear. He was centimeters away. he could feel the warm air coming from the wolf's open mouth as it closed in-  
The tip of his small foot touched the porch. There. He was safe. The wolf couldn't catch him here: he was too close to Mommy and Daddy. It was against the rules for it to hurt him now.  
He sprinted to the middle of the porch, heart racing and out of breath, but warmth now flooded his brain. He had outrun the wolf. He was now on the porch, which was a boundary to it. It would have to look for someone else to chase, for he had triumphed. He had reached the point at which the wolf couldn't pursue him any further-  
He gasped in absolute terror as he noticed the gray monster in the corner of his eye. It was thundering onto the porch - across the forbidden threshold of safety - cornering him. It had broken the rules, gone into the area protected by Mommy and Daddy. Now it had him.  
He screamed as the werewolf sunk its massive teeth into his flesh. 


End file.
